Hi I really do not understand modes and routines ALL I want is a SIMPLE switch to turn a door bell (multi sensor+ sonos) off if I have got people trailing in and out of house (workmen/kids) WITHOUT having to keep changing TIME in set up smart app. IS there an APP to do this and if so how do I get it?

PLUS what IS ALEXA? I keep seeing it mentioned on here but cant find WHAT it is.
How do you go about getting apps that ARE NOT on the Smart things hub mobile app (which I hate by the way) .
Thanks

Amazon Echo is a hands-free speaker you control with your voice. Echo connects to the Alexa Voice Service to play music, provide information, news, sports scores, weather, and more—instantly. All you ...

So sometimes you want your sonos to ring when a door opens, but other times you don’t want it to?

It sounds like modes and routines are what you want to use.

What smartapp are you using now to notify you that your door is open?

In general, you create mode #1 and routine #1. You setup routine #1 so that when it runs, mode #1 becomes active. Then in the smartapp you’re using to make the sonos ring, you would limit the execution to only occur in mode #1. When your door opens and ST is in mode 1, your sonos will ring.

Then you create mode #2 and routine #2. Routine #2 is set to switch to mode #2. If ST is in mode #2, your sonos won’t ring.

Name the modes and routines whatever you want so you know what’s what. You manually trigger the running of routine #1 or routine #2. Or you could try to automate it based on a presence sensor or some other trigger.

You’ve got your hub. You’ve got some devices. Now how do you schedule what happens when?
SmartThings doesn’t have a rules engine/scheduler, so there’s no one tutorial for how to do this. But it’s an open platform, and there are about 12 different ways to set up various kinds of schedules. Some require custom code, some don’t.
A “scheduler” in this context is anything that causes a networked device to perform an action, even if it’s just to toggle on or off immediately. (Network engineering definition, forgive me. :blush:)
(Note: as of April 2017, the original author of this FAQ lost the ability to add updated screenshots as VoiceOver capability was broken in the official SmartThings mobile app and has not yet been fixed. Anyone who wants to update the screenshots or any out of date i…

If you just want to jump straight to learning how to find and use custom code, here’s that FAQ:

So you're new to SmartThings, you asked a question, and someone suggested "custom code" as an answer.
Or you were browsing the forums, and you found something that sounded like it would be perfect for what you wanted, but again, "uses custom code."
What does that mean, how hard is it to do, and what's the difference between a "SmartApp" and a "Device Type Handler"?
(Note: the official terminology has changed a couple of times. "device type handler," "device handler," "DTH," and "device type" all mean the same thing, and you will find all these terms used in the forums.)
SECTION I: SMARTAPPS AND DEVICE HANDLERS: WHAT THEY ARE
SmartAPPS: Tiny Programs to decide what a specific device should do when, or to collect the information from a specific device
SmartApps, including the var…

Meanwhile, there are a whole bunch of different ways to give you one tap control of whether the doorbell sounds or not. What code/rule did you use to set up the doorbell sound in the first place?

Now I understand how modes work I managed to work out a solution for this. It’s a multipurpose sensor, someone knocking the door (confusingly for them!) sets off a bell on the sonos (I set it with 15 mins grace so I can answer the door without it sounding again) - the bell is set for daytime only, after 11pm a different smart app takes over the sensor and an alarm is set. I have it set to home mode and just change the mode to night to turn it off as there is nothing else in the day that I have set to a home mode. It isn’t often I need to do this, the bell sounds if I go out of course and when I come home - but that’s ok.